539 pages
Publisher: Thorpe / Charnwood Large Print
Publishing date: January 2023
Library
Blurb
Open the safe deposit box. Inside you will find research material for a true crime book. You must read the documents, then make a decision. Will you destroy them? Or will you take them to the police?
Everyone knows the story of the Alperton Angels: the cult-like group who were
convinced one of their member's babies was the anti-Christ, and they had a
divine mission to kill it - until the baby's mother, Holly, came to her senses
and called the police. The Angels committed suicide rather than go to prison, and
Holly - and the baby - disappeared into the care system.
Nearly two decades later, true-crime author Amanda Bailey is writing a book on
the Angels. The Alperton baby has turned eighteen and can finally be
interviewed - if Amanda can find them, it will be the true-crime scoop of the
year, and will save her flagging career. But rival author Oliver Menzies is
just as smart, better connected, and is also on the baby's trail.
As Amanda and Oliver are forced to collaborate, they realise that what everyone
thinks they know about the Angels is wrong, and the truth is something much
darker and stranger than they'd ever imagined.
This story is far from over - and it won't have a happy ending.
Review
WOW!!!!
What a book. What a story. And, what a setup. Unreliable narrator doesn’t begin to cover it. Saying this story is filled with twist after twist would be an understatement. Suffice it to say that whatever I expected the outcome of this story to be—and I changed my mind about that a few times while reading—it wasn’t anywhere close to what I discovered as the tale ended.
As good as this story is, I’ve got a feeling it won’t appeal to everyone. Not because there’s anything wrong with the story—there really, really isn’t—but because of the format in which it is presented. What we have here is a collection of emails, WhatsApp messages, and transcripts of conversations without a single paragraph of narrative, description, or conversation. When I started the story, I did wonder how long it would be before the format would start to irritate me. Now that I’ve reached the end, I’m very happy to say that the concept worked beautifully for me. In a way, it is as if Janice Hallett has turned a mystery plot inside-out. We are presented with all the facts, or rather, with all the information Amanda Bailey is willing to provide us with. This setup turned my reading experience more active; I had to do some of the work you would ‘normally’ expect the fictional investigator to do.
One thing became clear to me very quickly: If you want to make it as an investigative journalist/author, you can’t have too much integrity or worry about other people’s feelings too much. At least, that certainly appears to be Amanda Bailey’s approach. Now that I’ve finished the book, I’m still not sure if I actually liked her.
I don’t want to say anything else about Amanda’s (and Oliver’s) investigation. Suffice it to say that absolutely nothing is as it appears to be at the start and that every time you think you might know what’s going on something unexpected puts you on a different track. The final few pages are filled with shocking twist after shocking twist, and it was absolutely delicious. I can’t wait to read the previous titles by Janice Hallett.
No comments:
Post a Comment